Brigadier Nigel Hall believes there are steps Theresa May, pictured here during a November visit to the Camp Taji military base in Iraq, can take to start reversing the damage done by her party's spending cuts

We are facing another serious black hole in the defence equipment programme. What is going on?

Some recently retired defence chiefs, traditionally the only ones allowed to speak the brutal truth in public, have been scathing about the impact of year-upon-year cutbacks.

Brigadier Hall says the 'critical mass' of armed forces is fighting power, and the UK's has fallen more than 20 per cent since 2012, to 78,000

Here is the rub. We have already dropped beneath critical mass. Any further frontline cuts will take us significantly beneath it.

Defence corporate morale, which has been fragile for some time, would take a body blow. Cutting today’s 78,000- strong Army (last this size post-Waterloo) and reducing our one Royal Marines brigade and some of its specialist shipping, as proposed, will break the camel’s back.

Other departments of state reaching crisis point can be turned around relatively quickly. Not so defence. The timelines for procuring equipment, recruiting and developing trained personnel and units are much longer.

In November, the British military participated in a military exercise that included 4,000 soldiers from multiple NATO countries, including the 3 Baltic states, the UK and the US

The lasting impact of failure in the meantime can be catastrophic.

We already face a serious problem recruiting and retaining servicemen. Tommy Atkins’ parents are not encouraging Tommy to join up, and Tommy is not signing up in anything like the numbers required. An atmosphere of near-permanent decline has taken root.

We have sacrificed too much in terms of size and numbers to pay for some top- of-the-range “exquisite” weapon platforms and have much less resilience than we need.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov, right, watch part of the joint Russian-Belarusian miliary exercise, this past Novemeber

Comparisons of some key equipment and formation-level training are embarrassing.

The hopeless and facile Government response to all this has been to trumpet our standing as the world’s fifth-highest defence spender, and to point to some of our world-class defence assets.

The claim that we are one of few allies that meets the Nato two per cent defence expenditure target convinces few serious commentators. It is based on very creative accounting. Nevertheless, we spend a lot on other elements of national security, including GCHQ, intelligence services, cyber, border force and police.

The UK has fallen far behind Russia and China in terms of money spent on our military and defence capabilities

With the NHS needing £4billion (King’s Fund charity estimate), and housing, prisons and transport high priorities, is it realistic to expect defence to get an extra £2billion?

YES, for the reasons outlined. Further frontline cuts would imperil our national security, alienate a significant number of voters, including 2.5million ex-servicemen, and ruin another Conservative core brand and competence.

UNCIVIL SERVICE

HENRY NEWMAN

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She should further shake up the defence procurement system to include adjustment of the wasteful and bureaucratic annual defence costings exercise to every three or five years.

She should call for options for part use of the aid budget for “dual use” of defence personnel and assets.

Finally, she should do what Tony Blair concluded but never applied, solve the recurring defence elephant in the room issue by creating a separate budget for Trident.

• Nigel Hall is a visiting senior research fellow at King’s College London and a Brigadier and former Commanding Officer for Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. This article first appeared on website reaction.life.